NOSTROVIA
by Writing.Ragdoll
Summary: A lost prophecy. A missing person's case. A battle to dominate humanity. Only one person holds the key to the domination of our modern world. Problem is- she can't remember where this key is… (Bucky Barnes x OC, Some slight Steve Rogers x OC)
1. 1

**December 20, 1939 - Białowieża Forest, Poland**

Footprints hit the snow repeatedly. Harsh breathing was materialized into heavy clouds of white as they escaped her chapped lips. She looked back over her shoulder. Whimpers could be heard as she bent over and clenched her injured shoulder tightly. Blood seeped through the thick coat's fabric staining her hand.

 _"Da drüben!"_ The uniformed men shouted behind her. Some rode in their ZZ motorcycles. The rest followed in military cars. She wasn't fast, and less with an open bullet wound on her shoulder. The wooded terrain aided in her narrow escape. She tagged every tree that she could, bouncing her weight on each and every tree trunk she encountered.

She managed to duck her head as the bullets came zipping by. Turning on a sharp corner she caught her breath hidden behind a thick tree. Her mismatched eyes wondered above the tolling heights Polish forest. The grey sky was bitter as the daunting winter.

 _"Sie versteckt sich im Wald!"_ They parked, the woods were becoming thick. It wouldn't be an issue for the hounds to sniff out her blood on the snow. The doors slammed and the roar of the German motorcycles came to a lull. Ferocious barking suddenly echoed the winter woods.

The woman's eyes darted around the forest seeking for an escape. There was none. She was trapped. The hounds sprinted following her scent. The Germans followed. They pointed at her, their aggressive faces red and swollen from the cutting wind.  
Her fingernails buried into the bark of the tree. She pulled up her father's pocket watch from her pocket. One of the last reminders of him. Inside was a photograph of the two of them.

 _"Hide. Always hide."_ She remembered the words he would often utter to her. She could almost feel his large hands pressing down on her shoulder's. _"Hide."_

The German's charged. She raised her opposite hand which was stretched wide open. Heels buried into the snowy ground. Blood dripped down her arm. The pocket watch slipped down her fingers.

A blinding white light, almost brighter than a sun spread through the forest. The leaves of the pine trees writhed and shook with the impact.

 _Flash._

 _White Space._

* * *

 **[Present Day] - SHIELD HQ, New York City, USA**

Nick Fury walked into the atrium of the SHIELD headquarters. His one eye was sharp and focused on the empty sofas in the middle of the room.

Steve Rogers, Captain America, conveniently happened to come bouncing from the upstairs gymnasium. He was drenched in sweat and wore his gray gym clothes.

"Director Fury," He acknowledged as he approached the esteemed Director of SHIELD.

"Where in the world is Stark?" Fury slapped down the papers fussily. Steve barely had a chance to answer. "I've been calling, and calling-"

"I was busy. Had important affairs to manage," A suave voice suddenly echoed from the surroundings of the room. Tony Stark strolled into the room. He wore Prada sunglasses, the latest Armani suit which he was buttoning and a million dollar strut. "If by affairs you mean your dates with Ms. Potts then they are not important." Fury grumbled irked.

"Let's not waste any more time." Nick Fury began walking away. One long strode before the other. His dark coat fluttering behind him. "Meeting room. Both of you."

Tony and Steve exchanged what appeared to be a confused look before following.

Maria Hill held a tablet as she waited inside of the meeting room. Natasha Romanoff was already in the room waiting with her arms crossed over her chest.

Nick Fury wasted no time in setting up his presentation. The group took a seat. The massive screen which stretched from wall to wall before them was displayed with what appeared to be an ancient text. The alphabet was illegible, the paper was yellow and torn, it appeared to be thousands of years old. The symbols appeared to be ancient runes.  
In the middle of the text were two large drawn eyes. Despite the color having faded from the text you could tell that one was green and the other was blue. Both appeared to be starring at a perfectly round circle drawn above them.

"What you are looking at ladies and gentlemen is the ancient text of The Sage, as described by the Nordic tribes of Scandinavia." Fury elaborated.  
Tony appeared to be bored out of his mind and kept his attention busy with his smartphone's keyboard. The Captain observed with interest as he stroked his chin. "This text was found in a lost grave in Greenland. It was hidden for centuries until it was found in the early 1900's by a group of German explorers."

He clicked and a second screen slid into view. In this screen was a drawing of a circle with lines that appeared to be coming out it. The circle was lightly stroked with a thin outline of horizontal lines around it, almost like streaks of light.

"Look familiar?" Fury said as he proceeds to the next slide.  
"Every culture has its own interpretation of it. The sun," he said before displaying a Mayan text. "Jesus Christ," many slides of Christian depictions flashed over. "Muhammad, Buddha, Nats, demi-gods, those are only some of the names which this individual has been called." Many more respective slides flashed the screen.  
"But it is most commonly referred to as The Sage, or _"To Faskómilo"_ by classic literature authors such as Plato and Homer-"  
"Wait-" The Captain raised a hand, both of his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.  
"Are you stating that the Son of God, the prophet of Islam and the creator of Buddhism are one individual?" Steve challenged Fury's controversial statement.

Despite having met two Norse gods, the American remained loyal to his Christian values.

"No," Fury deadpanned. "I'm saying that one person was all of the formerly mentioned entities."

Natasha's eyebrows furrowed in concern. Maria Hill remained focused on the presentation she herself had prepared.

Fury flashed her a frustrated look. The agent clicked some buttons in her tablet and all of the images zoomed out to fill the screen.

"All of these individuals had something in common. Power. Some were worshiped as gods. Eventually, the story of The Sage became a forgotten lore. They say the source of this individual's power is this artifact." Once again there was a zoom in into that drawn circle. "Often confused by the sun, resembling a host or a pearl in these texts the artifact remains unfound."  
"Right- just like the Holy Grail, Atlantis, or Fury's sex life." Stark retorted sarcastically. "Stark…" The one-eyed man warned in an annoyed tone.  
"So- what's the point of finding this thing? We don't even know if it's real. We could be looking for the Easter Bunny for all that we know," Tony added bitterly. This meeting was a waste of his time. He had bigger issues on his plate right now. Pepper's distancing was one…

"This artifact, "Fury began once again. "Is said to hold a power unknown to humanity. It is more powerful than vibranium and it is believed to grant supernatural abilities to the individual who possesses it. The reason why we will be seeking this object is out is due to the involvement of SOPHOS or a fraction of what was once formerly called HYDRA."  
Captain America's attention perked at the mention of the organization. He didn't realize but his hands tightened slightly.  
"Legends tell that the only human with the knowledge of where this artifact is hidden _"Lie within the Sage,"_ he translated the text above.

The following video that was displayed showed an elderly man. His paper-like skin appeared to be wrinkled and carried his heavy age. His mouth was agape displaying a single digit amount of yellow teeth. His eyes - blank as he was blind.

The interview was in German. The older man nodded and listened carefully. Then he gasped in horror as he elaborated on his story.

"This man was a former member of the ZZ. He escaped the Nuremberg trials and lived hiding in Argentina until the ripe age of 93. In this recording, he describes what he believes to be the last scene encounter with The Sage." Fury paused for a brief moment. His pause was interrupted by a loud gunshot which echoed the room. The old man's head tilted to the side and the screen flicked off cruelly. The people in the room held their silence.  
"He claimed that his troop found the individual hiding in Poland. Because of this, the German invaded in the Fall of 1939. He said that they followed it into what is now called the "Dead Forest." Doctors were never able to figure how but that day 26 German men claimed to have been blinded by a bright light. No elaborate explanation was ever discovered-"  
"The man- did you kill him?" Steve asked.  
"SOPHOS did the job, his body was never found. This was the only bit of their data we managed to obtain."

Fury stepped to the minute of the room. His hands were crossed behind his back and he stood tall. Stark had long abandoned his cellphone's distractions and was now 100% focused on the task.

"We need to find The Sage and the artifact before the enemy does. You best believe that SOPHOS has invested years in the practice of tracking, finding and capturing The Sage."

"Save? By save do you mean capturing for SHIELD's use?" Captain America rose to his feet upset.

"Do not harm The Sage," Fury stated as a closing statement. "I can assure you that the artifact and the world will be safer with the Sage under our custody."

His eye flickered to the serious faces of the individuals before him.

"Dismissed. You leave at dawn."

Tony Stark was the first to be out of the room. "Get Barton," Fury said to the Black Widow who simply nodded her head obediently and exited.

Steve Rogers stood and shook his head. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. What he had seen.

"And Rogers-" Fury spoke momentarily a quick step before Steve walked out.  
"I want Barnes on board."  
Taken aback, Steve turned to face him demanding an explanation. However, none was given.

Without another word, he walked out.


	2. 2

Natasha and Clint flew the Quinjet over the Republic of Poland. The terrain below them was dyed in hues of gold, orange, and tones of mellow yellow due to the change in season.

Tony Stark followed behind on his own plane. He refused to fly in the same carrier as James Buchanan Barnes. It was probably for the best considering that it was still painful for Tony to be around the man who had murdered his parents (even if it had been under the orders of a terribly powerful hypnosis).  
Steve Roger's currently observed his best friend who was sitting across from him. He noticed the scraggly beard he wore, the dark bags that had formed under his eyes due to countless of sleepless nights. He was on edge, right now. Scratch that, it almost seemed as if he was always on the edge.  
Buck couldn't even distinct reality from fiction. At this point, he didn't know what was true and what wasn't. The reality was nonexistent to him.

"Hey, Buck," Steve reached out to him and gently nudged his knee lightly.

His cold eyes snapped at met Steve's. The Captain noted they were empty, they held no emotion. His handgrip tightened around the machine gun he was holding anxiously. It even pained Steve to see him like this.

"How you doin' partner?" He offered with a small smile.

The long-haired man, however, remained stoic and silent. His dark eyes met his friends.

"We're going to find that Sage." Steve pressed with a small smile. He wasn't giving up on his friend anytime soon. He had faith that the Bucky he had once known was buried somewhere deep inside of the obscure man that sat before him.

"Brace yourselves, boys, we're about to land." Natasha suddenly said over the intercom.

Some moments later the Quinjet remained hidden in the Polish forest. The forest was located near the Belorussian border.

"We're here," Natasha said as they stepped into the ground which loudly crunched under their weight. "The dead forest? Funny name," Clint commented as his eyes analyzed every observable nook and cranny of the tall forest.  
Before them stood a massive tree. However, it was different from the others. Its bark had turned dark and lacked color. However, it was undead. It's roots stretched and the tree did not rot despite its inability to produce leaves or acorns.  
"How odd.…" Natasha said as her pale hand traced the bark ashen tree.

"You think that's something!" Tony suddenly spoke into the audiphones that the agents were wearing. All looked up and saw the Iron Man flying above the treetops.  
"There's a trail of hundreds of them," Tony added as he followed the trail or dark trees.

It was suddenly that Clint's senses slightly made his shoulder twitch. Before the enemy had the chance to attack there was an arrow between their eyes.

"We've got company," Clint said as he drew another arrow from his quill.  
"Means we're in the right place." The Captain nodded.

With wary eyes, Bucky simply charged his weapon ready to strike.

"You're not the only one with company…" Tony murdered into his microphone. Some moments later missile blasts could be overheard echoing the hollow forest. The zooming of jets came along with it.

* * *

The Sage sat in a meditating position. She sat on a stack of hay, both of her legs were tucked underneath her body. In her hands, she held a copy of Leo Tolstoy's _Anna Karenina._ It could've been the hundredth time she read it. She had already memorized the plot.

However, it was best that being alone with her mind.  
She had been alone for such a long time that sometimes she wondered if she could still speak. The thought of her own voice resounding the empty echo of the walls before her frightened her. Next to her sat a pile of books she had re-read over and over again. With the exception of _Gone With the Wind._

It was then that the Earth trembled. Her eyes instantly shot up and she could see the layers of dust and pebbles coming loose from her roof. The inside of the room was kept lit with ominous orbs of energy that were strategically placed.

It was silent for a moment.

Disturbed, she felt a terrible headache suddenly overcome her. Coming to her feet she wobbled reaching one of the walls in the dimly lit cave. It was then that she heard it again, but louder. The ground shook. The pile of books tumbled over, so did the few belongings she possessed. Realizing the intrusion panic surged through her veins. She had been found. It was over. It was then that it all came crashing down.

At least the roof did.

The Sage was cornered as trees, rocks, and dirt came crashing down. Her cover had been blown, her hideout had come crashing down. The sunlight was blinding. She shut her eyes tightly and cringed at the burning pain. After being in the darkness for years, looking into the light appeared to be impossible. She could feel the warmth of a fire nearby and could hear the cracking of the wood beneath the licking flames.

Words in a tongue which was foreign to her were being tossed around. It was Yankee language.

She covered her face with her fisted hands. She had to get out of here. Stumbling backward into the wall she attempted to claw her way from the burrows of the underground cave which had served as her former home. Adrenaline pumped through her body. Her heart hammered in her rib cage out of fear and desperation.

A person continued speaking to her. It was then she felt a strong hand reach for her arm.

She shouted to be left alone in her native tongue. The grip only got tighter. She attempted to pry her eyes open but found it too painful. Her body was lifted for a moment. The heat got more intense. The man held the body of the woman and leaped to the surface escaping from the destroyed cave ditch. The moment he set foot on the ground he spoke into the intercom.  
"Subject is safe," he looked at the blazing flames which ignited the Dead forest. Before he realized a fist collided with his stomach. To him, it felt almost like a tap on his abdomen. He looked at the woman who was kicking and screaming like a wilding. Her eyes were shut tight and her hair was long to her waist and tossed up in a messy spread. Steve's eyes were wide this hadn't been part of his training!  
It was then that the woman wriggled free from his grip. He saw a light emitting from her palms and he dropped her to the ground in order to shield his eyes.  
"She's on the loose!" Captain American shouted back into his audio before sprinting after the Sage. Meanwhile, Iron Man attempted to contain the fire he had caused when he destroyed the enemy's jets that were hovering around the terrain. Hawkeye and Natasha were currently fighting the army of pouring SOPHOS soldiers who were in pursuit of the Sage. The woman ran blindly, bumping into trees, falling branches and stumbling with the grown roots of the Dead Forest. The smog inside of the woods was overbearing. The flames licked at the autumn leaves on the floor. She could feel her legs scorching with the flames she could not avoid. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't run. She couldn't think. Her migraine wasn't helping.  
Someone was pulling her head back. She yelped as she collapsed on her knees. Her hair was being ripped from its roots.

Barnes heard it. He heard the screaming of a woman through the unfolding chaos. He was surprised he heard it over the roaring fire and the bickering of Steve, Natasha, Tony, and Clint all speaking at once over the earpiece he wore. He heard it.  
He stabbed a soldier in the chest and wasted no time in pursuing the shrieking voice. He ran through the black fog and flames. Sweat build on his temple. His metallic arm was feeling heavier. The steel was heating up.  
He shot down any soldier he encountered. His sharp eyes were focused when he suddenly spotted them.

A woman on her knees, a SOPHOS soldier grabbed her long hair on a tangled hand as he spoke into an earpiece. Steve was a couple of yards away fighting off the backup solders. The woman, without any hesitation, sliced her long hair off. By the time her hair hit the ground the soldier that had attempted to overpower her was on his back, probably dead.  
Bucky had wasted no time shooting him down. Her scrunched up face turned away as she attempted to escape again. Debris proceeding to fall around the woods. The smoke irritated his eyes. Regardless he sprinted coming from behind he lunged at the Sage and wrapped his arms around her. She hissed at the touch of his steaming metal arm against her skin.

"I got her. Let's get out of here," he said into the intercom communicating with the others. The woman tossed and turned wildly and she repeatedly shanked his metal arm with desperation and clawed at it.

 _"Pozwól mi odejść!"_ She shouted.

 _'Polish',_ he though recognizing the language.

"Let's go!" Steve jogged up to the scene coughing. Sweat was rolling down his temples due to the heat of the burning woods. He coughed as his lungs protested. "Miss, I'm going to need you to calm down," he spoke slowly.  
His wishes were heard by deafened ears The hysterical woman continued shouting. Bucky simply approached Steve. Without saying a word, he reached for Captain America's shield and hit the woman in the back of the head with it.

The Sage went limp in his arm.

"That'll do," Steve mused.


	3. 3

She could hear the murmuring of voices. Her head felt like an anvil. It weighted and throbbed in the back as if having been hit by a terribly heavy object.  
The voices continued. They reached into her consciousness.

'Wait. Voices..?' She thought. After all, she lived alone.

Her mismatched eyes shot wide opened. They stung due to the bright lights in the room and all the smog that had gone into them. She winced due to her unaccustomed vision, she pulled on her arm but found unable to do so. Her head hurt. She felt as if a piano had fallen on her. Her legs ached. Both of her arms had been tied down to the sides of what appeared to be a hospital bed. There was an IV fluid attached to her arm. Her feet were also tied down. She struggled against the bindings. She gritted her teeth in rage as she let out a monstrous scream.

'Hide. Never let them get you,' Her father had once said to her.

Several woman approached her as she rattled the bindings that kept her restrained and bind to a hospital mattress. One of the nurses pushed her chest back into the bed. The other injected a strange substance into the IV fluid. It was then that the Sage realized that there were other individuals in the room who spoke quietly to themselves.

"Rowdy one, isn't she?" Steve Rogers said with his arms crossed over his wide chest. There was a hint of fear at the rage the woman held.

Barnes sat by the window in the corner of the room. His cold eyes looked at the enraged woman with contempt. He noted the way her choppy brown hair tossed around her face and the frustration that her mismatching colored eyes held.

"Uspokój się," Natasha suddenly stepped forward. She spoke in the little Polish she knew to ask the woman to calm down. It was now obvious that this individual did not speak English.  
"Who are you? What do you want with me?" the woman spoke back in Polish. Her voice had come back to her. It felt odd to speak.  
Especially to others.  
"Speak Russian?" Natasha asked again in Polish. The woman eyed her carefully. How long had it been since she had last seen another woman?  
Had it been four years? She couldn't narrow it down. She wondered if all American women were as beautiful as the one before her.

"Yes." Responded the Sage in Russian.

"We know you're the Sage" Natasha began.  
"I don't know anything about that," she denied looking away, a frown clear on her dirty face.  
"You're safe." The Black Widow continued. She did the best to conjure up a sincere expression. Maria Hill and Steve simply observed not knowing what the two women were discussing. Bucky looked away, yet his ears didn't fail him.

"What do you want?" spat out the Polish woman.  
"Your name," Natasha demanded as she held a tablet close to her chest.  
"Barbara Bohm," she simply retorted quietly.

Natasha quickly typed in the words on the tablet in her hands. The tablet was connected to SHIELD's entire database. A couple of moments later the screen let out some jingles. There were no results.

The edge of her lips upturned at the perplexed expression on the red-headed woman's face. "You cleaned up nicely before going into hiding…" Natasha noted.  
"I learned from the best," she responded in a more relaxed tone. The fond memory of her father brought some comfort to her.

"Hide. Don't let them find you. And if worse comes to happen. Hide your death."Those had been his last words to her.

"Natasha Romanoff," the Black Widow introduced herself. Her tone was friendly despite her serious expression. "SHIELD has a proposition for you Ms. Bohm. You will remain under our custody for the time being and no harm will come to you. Later we will discuss the location of the artifact."  
"If the only reason I'm being held against my will is because of said artifact. You're wasting your time. It doesn't exist." The Sage responded, both of her eyebrows furrowed.

"What are they saying?" Steve whispered to Bucky who simply rolled his eyes away from the scene and pretended to be more interested in New York's skyline.

"Is that why you were in hiding?" Natasha retorted.

Barbara's jaw tightened. She was silent for a moment.

"How do I know I can trust you?" She asked.  
"That's for you to decide," Natasha said something in English to the nurses that stood next to the Polish woman's bed. With that, she turned to the men, explained the situation and left. The nurses slowly removed the IV from The Sage's arm. They then released her bindings and allowed the woman to sit up. The woman rubbed her tender wrists in her hands. She brought her knees close to her body. She was still wearing her military pants and her button up white cotton blouse, one which had once been white but now wore a yellow tint. The two men in the room watched her carefully as she stepped off the bed and approached them. She eyed them both of them slowly before making a run for it. However, Steve wrapped his arms around her before her fingers could even graze the doorknob. He lifted her as if she weighed nothing. Frustrated she huffed. Her chest rising in aggression.

"Alright," Steve said. "If I let you down, you're going to have to promise you won't run away."  
Not understanding the language she struggled against his grip.  
"Don't fight him," Bucky suddenly spoke in Russian. His eyes didn't meet hers. She looked at the man who had just spoken and the wide window before him. How odd was it that the mysterious man with the metal arm understood fluent Russian?  
She couldn't help but be captivated by the astonishing view of the city. The skyscrapers reached the heavens and gleamed in contrast with the sunlight. Her breath caught, she stopped struggling. She was released from his mighty grip and allowed on her feet.

"Steve Rogers," Steve said as clearly as he could as he signaled to himself with one palm pressed to his chest. She blinked twice and focused her attention on him The man was handsome. His hair was golden, his features were Aryan. He was terribly handsome and his eyes were a rare blue that held kindness to them. His built reminded her of a bull, he was a gigantic man! Steve turned to introduce his best friend. "Bucky." He said signaling to the man who sat in the corner simply gazing out the window, paying them no mind.  
It was a primitive method of communication, but it worked. Barbara observed that the other man appeared distant. His lifeless eyes simply gazed out into the light as he propped his chin upon his hand. His dark hair reached to his shoulders. She didn't pay him much mind besides noting his massive steel arm. It was then that she remembered he must've been the one to capture her. She could still feel the burning of the steel against her torso.

"Basia," she introduced herself with an unsure look in her eyes. She still eyed both them warily. Steve nodded the odd way her name of preference was pronounced (Ba-shia) he repeated to himself in his head. Their clothes were so odd. So was their way of speaking. She had never encountered any Americans but they sure were odd. Steve was unsure of what else to say to her. "I sure hope you're not Nazi in disguise," the woman said more to herself in Russian with a slight hint of humor.

"Nazi?" Bucky questioned. She blinked twice confused by his response. Steve looked at him just as perplexed.

"The war isn't over yet," Basia shook her head shrugging and continued speaking in the Slav tongue. Bucky stood up and approached the woman.  
"What is it?" Steve asked. Bucky didn't' remove his eyes from the woman's confused expression.  
"This woman thinks World War 2 hasn't ended," he said breathlessly.  
"The war ended almost seventy years ago," he responded.  
"что?" She responded slowly in disbelief. Her eyes shot wide open, mouth agape. "W-What year is it?"

Steve understood what was happening. Without a second thought, he reached for a newspaper that was in a trashcan nearby. He offered the paper to her. The bold numbers starred back at her. She felt light headed. It had to be some sort of trickery. Cold sweat beads rolled down her temple. There was no way. There was no way that she sat in a haystack in a cave for seventy long-damn years. It wasn't possible.  
It was the only thought running through her mind. Seventy long years. Seventy long years. Seventy long years.  
Her breathing hitched. There was no way. She hadn't aged. Why wasn't she dead? Why hadn't she aged? She looked down at her hands, it had been years since she had seen her reflection. However, her hands wouldn't lie. They remained youthful and spotless, just as ageless as they had always been.

"Buck, I have a feeling that she-" Steve began as he observed the woman's dazed look. "She's going into shock," Bucky stated.

Just as he finished speaking her eyes rolled back and her body went limp. Bucky's arm moved in time to catch the collapsing woman. She remained limp in his arm with her head lolling to the side over his shoulder. Bucky was about to hand the Sage to his friend but before he could-

"Nurse!" Steve was already out of the room and on the search for help.

Bucky carried her to the medical bed with ease. He touched her face and her skin was clammy and cold. He laid her and put several pillows under her legs in order to get the blood flowing back to the brain. She mumbled Polish words and slightly stirred as she did.

She mumbled something in incoherent Russian. His eyebrows furrowed slightly as he leaned in closer to listen carefully. Her mismatched eyes slightly opened and met his with a blank stare. One of her eyes was an intriguing color, it was the blue of the ocean meeting an infinite sky. The other was hazel green, the colors of soil, nature and flourishing life.  
Her mind was racing. As she lay in a state of shock. Unsure if the grim were to greet here she thought of all of the advice her father had ever given her.

Snapping back to reality he listened.

"Stranger." She breathed in Russian."Burn my body."


End file.
